Free Funnel Audit
Convert more customers today!
Content Marketing
8 mins read
PPC
8 mins read
Are you tired of not knowing where half of your money goes, even after spending thousands on ads each month? It’s at this point that an eCommerce PPC audit comes in handy.
So, what is an e-commerce PPC audit? An ecommerce PPC audit checks your paid advertising campaigns from top to bottom. It reviews account structure and campaign performance and finds ways to improve results.
This review system helps you cover all major platforms like Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. It includes search campaigns, shopping ads, and Performance Max campaigns. Product feed quality gets special attention since it affects visibility.
If you’ve a good audit system, you’ll have a better chance of growing faster and more effectively. Look at both quick wins and long-term strategy. The goal is simple: improve ROI, grow revenue, and scale profitably. Most businesses find hidden problems costing them money every month.
Online stores face complex challenges with tracking, platform updates, and wasted spending. Product feeds change constantly with new inventory and seasonal items. Without regular checks, even successful campaigns slowly lose money.
Here’s why professional PPC audit services make sense:
Find Tracking Problems Fast – Many accounts have GA4 setup errors or missing conversions. Tracking mistakes can hide 15-30% of your actual conversions. This leads to wrong decisions about where to spend money.
Fix Product Feed Issues – Disapproved products, missing GTINs, and weak titles hurt your visibility. Feed problems lower your Quality Score and reduce sales potential significantly.
Stop Wasting Budget – Most accounts spend too much on low-performing campaigns. Moving money to winners can boost overall ROAS by 20-40% easily.
Focus on Real Profit – Revenue looks good, but profit matters more for business health. Smart bidding based on margins beats simple ROAS targeting every time.
Stay Current with Changes – Performance Max, AI bidding, and new tracking methods change constantly. Keeping up requires dedicated expertise and regular platform monitoring.
Run a full ecommerce PPC audit every three to six months. However, certain situations demand immediate attention instead of waiting months.
Consider auditing right away in these situations:
After Platform Updates – New campaign types like Performance Max need structural changes fast.
Before Peak Seasons – Q4 preparation and Black Friday planning require thorough optimization work.
When Performance Drops – A 15-20% decline over 30 days signals serious problems.
After Budget Changes – Scaling spend by 50% or more needs strategy adjustments.
With New Products – Fresh product lines need optimized feeds and campaign structures.
Annual Strategy Review – Yearly audits align PPC with your business goals.
Do quarterly checks plus immediate audits when these triggers appear. Prevention beats crisis management every single time for better results.
This PPC audit checklist for ecommerce covers every critical area of advertising performance. The framework is organized by priority, starting with high-impact items first.
Each section includes specific action steps you can implement immediately. The checklist covers Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and product feed optimization. Here’s your complete breakdown of e-commerce audit procedures:
Tracking forms the foundation for all PPC performance measurements. If tracking breaks, every decision rests on bad data. Research shows 30–40% of audits have major tracking problems.
See GA4 E-commerce Events – Verify purchase, add_to_cart, and checkout events fire correctly. Please ensure that revenue and transaction IDs are processed correctly. This prevents duplicate counting and enables accurate attribution.
Set Up Enhanced Conversions – Confirm customer data like email and phone gets hashed correctly. Test the setup and verify that match rates exceed the minimum of 60%. Higher match rates mean better conversion tracking accuracy.
Fix Deduplication Issues – Stop double-counting between GA4 and Google Ads. Make sure attribution models align across both platforms for consistency.
Consider Server-Side Tracking – This helps with iOS tracking and privacy compliance. It improves data accuracy when browser restrictions limit standard tracking.
Analyze Conversion Lag – Check how long customers take from click to purchase. Adjust bid strategy windows to match your actual sales cycle.
Effective structure impacts performance and makes management much easier. A poor organization wastes 10–20% of your budget through confusion and misallocation.
Separate Campaign Types – Keep Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns distinct. Each type needs different optimization approaches and bidding strategies.
Split Brand from Non-Brand – Use separate budgets and strategies for each. This prevents brand traffic cannibalization from Performance Max campaigns.
Organize by Product Category – Group high-margin products separately from low-margin items. Separate bestsellers from new or seasonal products for better control.
Use Clear Naming – Consistent names help you filter performance quickly. Good naming prevents confusion as your account grows bigger.
Build Negative Keyword Lists – Create shared lists at campaign and account levels. This saves time and blocks irrelevant searches efficiently.
Your product feed drives Shopping and Performance Max campaign success. Feed quality directly affects ad visibility, Quality Score, and sales rates. Studies show 50–70% of accounts have significant feeding problems.
Optimize Product Titles – Use this format: Brand, Product Type, Key Attributes, Size/Color. Keep titles between 70-150 characters for best results. Avoid generic manufacturer names that nobody searches for.
Add GTINs and MPNs – Every product needs correct identifier numbers. Missing identifiers trigger disapprovals and reduce your ad visibility significantly.
Fix Product Categories – Use Google’s official taxonomy instead of custom categories. Correct categorization helps ads show up for relevant searches.
Upload Quality Images – Images need 800×800 pixels minimum with white backgrounds. Remove watermarks and promotional text that violate Google’s requirements.
Implement Custom Labels – Label products by margin, season, bestseller status, and clearance. This enables smart bidding based on your business priorities.
Add Promotions – Keep active promotions updated in the Merchant Center. Monitor competitor prices and adjust your bidding accordingly.
Keywords must align with search intent and your actual products. Poor keyword management wastes 20-30% of search campaign budgets easily.
Review Search Terms – Check the last 90 days of queries triggering ads. Find high-spend, low-conversion patterns that waste money unnecessarily.
Add Negative Keywords – Block irrelevant searches like “free,” “cheap,” “DIY,” and “jobs.” Add negatives at the campaign or account level as appropriate.
Balance Match Types – Mix broad, phrase, and exact match strategically. Make sure the broad match has strong negative lists before expanding.
Align Keywords to Pages – Send specific searches to matching product pages. Generic landing pages with specific keywords perform poorly.
Evaluate Competitor Terms – Check if targeting competitor brands delivers acceptable ROI. These terms often cost more than they’re worth.
Bid strategy should match business goals and conversion patterns. Following the 80/20 rule, put 60% of the budget into top performers.
Match Strategy to Goals – Use Target ROAS for profit focus. Use Maximize Conversions for growth and customer acquisition phases.
Set Profit-Based Targets – Base targets on product margins, not just revenue. Account for shipping costs, returns, and processing fees.
Redistribute Budget – Move more money to high-performing campaigns and products. Find budget-limited campaigns that are losing impression-sharing opportunities.
Plan Seasonal Changes – Increase budgets 2-3 weeks before peak seasons. Front-load spending for Q4 and major sale events.
Adjust Bids by Dimension – Review device, location, and time-of-day modifiers regularly. Update based on current performance, not old assumptions.
Audiences enhance keyword targeting with user behavior and history. Remarketing delivers 2-3x higher conversion rates than cold traffic.
Build Remarketing Lists – Create audiences for all visitors, cart abandoners, and past buyers. Set 30-90-180 day durations based on your sales cycle.
Upload Customer Lists – Use Customer Match for email targeting and lookalikes. Segment by lifetime value and purchase recency for better results.
Test In-Market Audiences – Add relevant audiences in observation mode first. Apply bid adjustments only after gathering sufficient data.
Create Lookalike Audiences – Seed from your best customers for quality expansion. Similar audiences outperform broad targeting significantly.
Ad quality affects Quality Score, click rates, and conversions. Refresh creative every 4-6 weeks to maintain strong performance.
Target Excellent Ad Strength – Use 8-10 headlines and 3-4 descriptions minimum. Include product benefits, brand elements, and clear calls to action.
Use All Extensions – Add sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, price, and promotion extensions. Keep all extensions current with your latest offers.
Add Dynamic Elements – Use keyword insertion for improved ad relevance. Implement IF functions for device and audience customization.
Highlight Unique Benefits – Emphasize free shipping, easy returns, and strong guarantees. Test price messaging versus value messaging for best results.
Test Systematically – Run A/B tests on different messaging angles. Archive low performers and scale winning creative approaches.
Performance Max launched in 2022 and uses all Google inventory. It often gets 30–50% of the total account budget.
Create Themed Asset Groups – Build groups for specific product categories. Use 3-5 asset groups minimum per campaign for better control.
Provide Audience Signals – Add customer lists and remarketing audiences as signals. Give three to five signals per asset group for AI guidance.
Separate Brand Traffic – Run different campaigns for brand versus non-brand. Use branded negatives in non-brand Performance Max campaigns.
Monitor Available Data – Check limited search term reports when available. Review asset ratings and listing group performance regularly.
Good e-commerce audit procedures mean prioritizing changes based on impact and effort. Trying to fix everything at once spreads resources too thin.
Use this framework for smart prioritization:
Quick Wins – High impact, low-effort changes like tracking fixes. Add obvious negative keywords and reallocate wasted budget immediately.
Strategic Improvements – High impact, medium-effort work like feed optimization. Restructure accounts and improve landing pages over the course of 2–4 weeks.
Long-term Work – Medium impact, ongoing effort through continuous testing. Keep refining creative and making incremental improvements monthly.
Correct tracking problems that affect all performance measurements. Add negative keywords blocking expensive irrelevant traffic. Move the budget from clear losers to proven winners. Resolve product disapprovals that cause inventory issues.
Restructure campaigns with proper brand separation. Enhance feeds with better titles, labels, and images. Speed up landing pages by compressing images and scripts. Develop new ad creative using audit insights.
Test different bid strategies and optimization approaches. Layer audiences and measure their performance impact carefully. Run creative tests on messaging and promotional angles. Refine Performance Max based on early performance data.
CausalFunnel simplifies the eCommerce PPC audit process by using AI to provide real-time insights and automatic optimization. The whole process is going to help you detect wasted spending, refine targeting, and improve overall ad performance.
You’ll never have to rely on guesswork or any delayed reports. CausalFunnel gives you instant, data-driven actions that make your campaigns more efficient and profitable.
CausalFunnel’s AI engine constantly analyzes live campaign data to improve performance. It adjusts bids, placements, and budgets in real time based on what’s working best. This helps you reduce wasted spending and focus on the ads that deliver stronger ROI without waiting for manual updates.
Business owners can handle basic audits with platform tools. However, profound analysis requires expertise, premium tools, and dedicated time.
Time Commitment Differs Greatly – DIY audits take 20-40 hours of focused work. Professional services complete audits in 1-2 weeks while you focus on core business tasks.
Tool Access Creates Gaps – Professionals use premium software costing $500-2,000 monthly. These tools provide competitive intelligence and automation, which are unavailable in free versions.
Platform Knowledge Requires Dedication – Staying current with monthly updates demands full-time focus. Generalist business owners cannot maintain this level of expertise.
Fresh Perspective Adds Value – External auditors spot blind spots internal teams miss. They bring pattern recognition from reviewing hundreds of accounts.
Implementation Support Makes a Difference – Professional PPC audit services include execution help, not just recommendations. This feature ensures findings translate to actual performance improvements.
Use DIY for monthly check-ins and routine maintenance work. Hire professionals for comprehensive analysis, major budget changes, or persistent problems. Professional audits typically return 3-5x their cost through optimizations.
The right tools enable efficient, thorough audits without unnecessary complexity. Mix free platform tools with strategic paid investments.
Google Analytics 4 provides free conversion tracking and attribution reporting. Google Tag Assistant validates tracking setup and catches configuration errors. Google Merchant Center offers feed diagnostics and competitive benchmarking for free.
Google Ads Auction Insights shows competitor overlap at no cost. SEMrush and Ahrefs provide paid competitor research and market intelligence. Google Keyword Planner offers free search volume data.
Google Ads Scripts enable free automated monitoring and alerts. Optmyzr and WordStream provide paid optimization suggestions and workflow improvements. Google PageSpeed Insights tests landing page speed with specific recommendations.
Even excellent audits make mistakes that reduce their value. Understanding these pitfalls helps you conduct better analysis.
Looking at Too Little Data – Review 90-180 days minimum, not just 30 days. Include year-over-year comparisons for established accounts to spot patterns.
Ignoring Profit Metrics – Strong revenue with weak profit hurts your business. Always include contribution margin and true profitability calculations.
Obsessing Over Quality Score – Quality Score is diagnostic, not the goal itself. Focus on conversions, profitability, and business growth instead.
Missing Cross-Channel Impact – PPC influences organic search and direct traffic. Evaluating PPC alone undervalues its total business contribution.
Analysis Without Action – Start implementation instead of pursuing perfect analysis forever. Quick wins and momentum matter more than exhaustive documentation.
Success shows through performance improvements after implementation, not report length. Track these key metrics monthly:
ROAS/POAS Improvement – Target 15-30% efficiency gains within 60-90 days. Measure both revenue and profit for complete assessment.
Wasted Spend Reduction – Quantify savings from negatives and budget reallocation. Effective audits can identify 10-25% of wasted spending that should be eliminated.
Conversion Rate Growth – Feed and landing page improvements should lift rates 10-20%. Shopping campaigns typically show the largest gains quickly.
Impression Share Increase – Better allocation should capture more high-value opportunities. Track share growth for your most important products.
Revenue Growth – Expect 20-40% revenue growth when audits find significant opportunities. This combines efficiency gains with smart reinvestment.
Document your current baseline across key metrics first. Record ROAS, CPA, conversion rate, and revenue for 90 days. This enables meaningful before-after comparison.
Gather admin access for Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Merchant Center, and GA4. Admin access shows all settings and historical data needed.
Schedule dedicated time for audit work instead of squeezing it between tasks. Focused attention identifies patterns that a fragmented review misses completely.
Prepare specific questions about challenges and goals before hiring help. This context helps auditors focus on your highest-value opportunities.
Commit to implementation follow-through, whether DIY or hiring experts. Start with quick wins to build momentum fast. Then work through strategic improvements systematically for lasting results.
Start using our A/B test platform now and unlock the hidden potential of your website traffic. Your success begins with giving users the personalized experiences they want.
Start Your Free Trial
Empowering businesses to optimize their conversion funnels with AI-driven insights and automation. Turn traffic into sales with our advanced attribution platform.
